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Brain candy for Happy MutantsSun, 02 Aug 2015 19:28:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2Brief history of Quaaludeshttp://boingboing.net/2015/07/09/brief-history-of-quaaludes.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/07/09/brief-history-of-quaaludes.html#commentsThu, 09 Jul 2015 18:16:40 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=403720
Quaaludes, the pills Bill Cosby admitted giving to women so he could have sex with them, are a prescription sedative that took off as a recreational drug during the 1970s disco era.]]>
Quaaludes, the pills Bill Cosby admitted giving to women so he could have sex with them, are a prescription sedative that took off as a recreational drug during the 1970s disco era. In 1985, commercial production ceased and clandestine synthesis began.
From the BBC News:

...In the 1960s, it was being used to treat insomnia and anxiety. However, it didn't take long for the drug's potent features to be misused.
"Doctors were essentially giving them out like candy," says Justin Gass, author of a book about the drug. "It was very easy to obtain Quaaludes in the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s."

People could buy them in semi-legal "stress clinics" without needing to visit a GP. They were pseudo-medical centres that would hand out the maximum legal prescription. These tactics would often be the clinics' eventual downfall, says David Herzberg, professor of history at the University at Buffalo.

At its height during the 1970s, Quaalude could be found across the US and earned the nickname "disco biscuits".

]]>http://boingboing.net/2015/07/09/brief-history-of-quaaludes.html/feed0Bathe in crude oil at Azerbaijan spahttp://boingboing.net/2015/07/06/bathe-in-crude-oil-at-azerbaij.html
http://boingboing.net/2015/07/06/bathe-in-crude-oil-at-azerbaij.html#commentsMon, 06 Jul 2015 16:00:17 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=402480
You can visit a spa in Naftalan, Azerbaijan and relax in a bath of crude oil, a "medicinal treatment" that apparently goes back to the 6th century.]]>

You can visit a spa in Naftalan, Azerbaijan and relax in a bath of crude oil, a "medicinal treatment" that apparently goes back to the 6th century. Careful though, the oil contains naphthalene, a possible human carcinogen.
Pshaw says Naftalan Health Centre doctor Hashim Hashimov: "Naftalan kills everything, viruses, bacteria and fungi. It's consistence is unique and pure, it does not contain any dirt."

Except maybe the previous bather's grime.

"Usually we lose some material on each person, and every time we add material for each person. But to dump the whole thing is impossible, as the material is expensive," Hashimov says.

“After five minutes of talking to you in pre-op,” the anesthesiologist (Tiffany M. Ingham, 42) told the sedated patient, “I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit,” she was recorded saying.

When a medical assistant noted the man had a rash (on his penis, which he previously mentioned to the Ingham), the anesthesiologist warned her not to touch it, saying she might get “some syphilis on your arm or something,” then added, “It’s probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you’ll be all right.”

When the assistant noted that the man reported getting queasy when watching a needle placed in his arm, the anesthesiologist remarked on the recording, “Well, why are you looking then, retard?”

...The discussion soon turned to the rash on the man’s penis, followed by the comments implying that the man had syphilis or tuberculosis. The doctors then discussed “misleading and avoiding” the man after he awoke, and Shah reportedly told an assistant to convince the man that he had spoken with Shah and “you just don’t remember it.” Ingham suggested Shah receive an urgent “fake page” and said, “I’ve done the fake page before,” the complaint states. “Round and round we go. Wheel of annoying patients we go. Where it’ll land, nobody knows,” Ingham reportedly said.

Ingham then mocked the man for attending Mary Washington College, once an all-women’s school, and wondered aloud whether her patient was gay, the suit states. Then the anesthesiologist said, “I’m going to mark ‘hemorrhoids’ even though we don’t see them and probably won’t,” and did write a diagnosis of hemorrhoids on the man’s chart, which the lawsuit said was a falsification of medical records.
"Anesthesiologist trashes sedated patient — and it ends up costing her" (Thanks, David Steinberg!)]]>

http://boingboing.net/2015/06/24/unconscious-patient-recorded-m.html/feed0Tech projects vein maps during blood donationshttp://boingboing.net/2014/11/03/tech-projects-vein-maps-during.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/11/03/tech-projects-vein-maps-during.html#commentsMon, 03 Nov 2014 13:00:13 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=342764
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is testing a technology to project a vein map on the arms of blood donors during the phlebotomy.]]>

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is testing a technology to project a vein map on the arms of blood donors during the phlebotomy.

"Vein visualisation technology uses near infrared technology to project an image of the vein onto the skin," says Dr. Dan Waller, a senior researcher with the organization. "Veins have a lot of deoxygenated haemoglobin that absorbs near infrared light and the device is able to use this information to project the image. The machines have settings to manage individual differences.

More than 100 Americans die each day from prescription drug overdoses, mostly painkillers. That's more daily deaths than from car accidents, gunshot wounds, or suicides.

]]>

More than 100 Americans die each day from prescription drug overdoses, mostly painkillers. That's more daily deaths than from car accidents, gunshot wounds, or suicides.
In California, two county District Attorneys are suing five of the biggest drug companies in the world, and the lawsuits include the same kind of arguments once used against big tobacco industry, demanding "public protection."

The companies are accused of a "campaign of deception" to persuade doctors that narcotic painkillers are safer than they really are. But the narcotic painkillers involved have been approved by the FDA. Is a government agency helping create a "population of addicts?" What's the role of physicians who write the prescriptions? Are they ill-informed, poorly trained or trying to make money?

More on the case at advocacy group harmreduction.org, and there's a Los Angeles Times writeup here.]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/05/22/more-in-us-die-each-year-from.html/feed0Man survives chainsaw in the neck (X-ray!)http://boingboing.net/2014/04/02/man-survives-chainsaw-in-the-n.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/04/02/man-survives-chainsaw-in-the-n.html#commentsWed, 02 Apr 2014 23:32:48 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=296020
This X-ray shows the chainsaw that was embedded in the neck of James Valentine, 21, of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, when he arrived at the hospital on Monday.]]>

This X-ray shows the chainsaw that was embedded in the neck of James Valentine, 21, of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, when he arrived at the hospital on Monday. After delicate surgery and just thirty stitches, he's now walking around and talking. Valentine said he was at work cutting trees when the chainsaw "kicked back" into his neck. The chainsaw stopped about 1/4 of an inch from the carotid artery that brings oxygenated blood to the head. His coworkers held the blade in place until medics took over. (CNN)]]>

http://boingboing.net/2014/04/02/man-survives-chainsaw-in-the-n.html/feed0Successful implant of 3D printed skullhttp://boingboing.net/2014/03/31/successful-implant-of-3d-print.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/03/31/successful-implant-of-3d-print.html#commentsMon, 31 Mar 2014 19:20:04 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=295448
Utrecht neurosurgeons 3D-printed a large section of a skull and implanted it in a 22-year-old woman with a bone disorder. According to the University Medical Centre Utrecht, this is the first time such a large implant has been successful without rejection, so far anyway.]]>

Utrecht neurosurgeons 3D-printed a large section of a skull and implanted it in a 22-year-old woman with a bone disorder. According to the University Medical Centre Utrecht, this is the first time such a large implant has been successful without rejection, so far anyway. After three months, the patient is back at work and, according to the surgeon, "it is almost impossible to see that she's ever had surgery." (Wired.co.uk, thanks Wes Allen!)]]>

http://boingboing.net/2014/03/31/successful-implant-of-3d-print.html/feed0Medical curiosities in new Harvard Museums exhibithttp://boingboing.net/2014/03/11/medical-curiosities-in-new-har.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/03/11/medical-curiosities-in-new-har.html#commentsTue, 11 Mar 2014 17:13:59 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=291597
This beautiful object is a corrosion cast of bronchi and trachea, c. 1880-1890, most likely from a rabbit, sheep, or dog.]]>

This beautiful object is a corrosion cast of bronchi and trachea, c. 1880-1890, most likely from a rabbit, sheep, or dog. It's part of the new Body of Knowledge exhibition at the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.

Corrosion casts have been part of anatomical teaching from the 17th century to the present, particularly for creating display specimens. A rapidly hardening substance, often metal or plastic, is injected into blood spaces or other cavities. Then the tissue is dissolved away by strong acids or bases. This cast was created using a mixture of bismuth, lead, tin, and cadmium. After injection, the tissue was dissolved in potassium hydroxide.

Body of Knowledge: A History of Anatomy (in 3 Parts)]]>http://boingboing.net/2014/03/11/medical-curiosities-in-new-har.html/feed0Dead man wasn'thttp://boingboing.net/2014/02/28/dead-man-wasnt.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/02/28/dead-man-wasnt.html#commentsFri, 28 Feb 2014 22:16:05 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=289991Walter Williams, 87, of Lexington, Mississippi was pronounced dead on Wednesday night. The coroner came to his home, did the paperwork, put him in a body bag, and transferred him to a funeral home. But then...

“We got him into the embalming room and we noticed his legs beginning to move, like kicking,” (coroner Dexter) Howard said. “He also began to do a little breathing.”

One possibility is that Williams's defibrillator fired up his heart after it had stopped. In any case, Williams is currently awake and talking in his hospital bed.

http://boingboing.net/2014/02/28/dead-man-wasnt.html/feed0Man busted for stealing and selling brains from medical museumhttp://boingboing.net/2014/01/03/man-busted-for-stealing-and-se.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/01/03/man-busted-for-stealing-and-se.html#commentsFri, 03 Jan 2014 17:32:47 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=277790David Charles, 21, was arrested for allegedly stealing jars of brain tissue from the Indiana Medical History Museum. Police tracked Charles down after a California fellow purchased the jars for $100 each on eBay. Museum director Mary Ellen Hennessey Nottage spoke to the man who bought the brains. "He just said he liked to collect odd things," Nottage said.

http://boingboing.net/2014/01/03/man-busted-for-stealing-and-se.html/feed0League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis documentary onlinehttp://boingboing.net/2013/10/09/league-of-denial-the-nfls-c.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/10/09/league-of-denial-the-nfls-c.html#commentsWed, 09 Oct 2013 19:27:26 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=260872
Last night's Frontline documentary about how the National Football League denies and hides overwhelming evidence linking the sport with brain injuries among its players is available for free online.]]>

Last night's Frontline documentary about how the National Football League denies and hides overwhelming evidence linking the sport with brain injuries among its players is available for free online. (Trailer above.) The film is based on the book League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth. It was written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, investigative reporters for ESPN. The documentary was initially a collaboration between ESPN and PBS but back in August, ESPN abruptly pulled its affiliation with the project due to pressure from the NFL, according to the New York Times. In other news, go team!

http://boingboing.net/2013/10/09/league-of-denial-the-nfls-c.html/feed0Knife in man's back for 3 yearshttp://boingboing.net/2013/03/25/knife-in-mans-back-for-3-yea.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/03/25/knife-in-mans-back-for-3-yea.html#commentsMon, 25 Mar 2013 17:30:45 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=220852Billy McNeely of Canada's Northwest Territories was scratching his back when he noticed a pointy protrusion. Turned out to be the tip of a 7.5cm knife blade that was stuck in his back. For three years. Back in 2010, McNeely was stabbed in a brawl following an arm wrestling match. Since then, his back set off prison metal detectors and he's had pain, but he claims that physicians told him it was nerve damage caused by the injury. From BBC News:

But this week, McNeely, 32, was scratching his back as usual when his fingernail caught on something. His girlfriend took a look.

"I told Billy: 'There's a knife sticking out of your back.' I was scared. I was ready to pull it out with tweezers," Stephanie Sayine told CBC News.

McNeely is considering whether to file a lawsuit against the local health department.

"Knife taken from Billy McNeely's back after three years"]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/03/25/knife-in-mans-back-for-3-yea.html/feed53From Seizure to Surgery: first-person account of what it's like to have a brain tumorhttp://boingboing.net/2013/02/22/from-seizure-to-surgery-first.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/22/from-seizure-to-surgery-first.html#commentsFri, 22 Feb 2013 20:46:37 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=214801Magical Realism: From Seizure to Surgery. The earlier installment is here.]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/02/22/from-seizure-to-surgery-first.html/feed10Building a "bionic man"http://boingboing.net/2013/02/08/building-a-bionic-man.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/08/building-a-bionic-man.html#commentsFri, 08 Feb 2013 18:57:19 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=211866How to Build A Bionic Man." Rex is outfitted with a variety of synthetic systems and appendages, from prosthetic limbs to a cochlear implant, artificial pancreas to retinal implant.]]>
This is Rex, a $1 million "bionic man" built in the UK by roboticists Richard Walker and Matthew Godden. Rex was the star of a new Channel 4 documentary titled "How to Build A Bionic Man." Rex is outfitted with a variety of synthetic systems and appendages, from prosthetic limbs to a cochlear implant, artificial pancreas to retinal implant. He's now on display at the London Science Museum but will visit America in October to promote the Smithsonian Channel's US premier of the documentary, retitled "Cyborg/Frankenstein."]]>http://boingboing.net/2013/02/08/building-a-bionic-man.html/feed18Surgeon Simulator 2013 gamehttp://boingboing.net/2013/02/05/surgeon-simulator-2013-game.html
http://boingboing.net/2013/02/05/surgeon-simulator-2013-game.html#commentsTue, 05 Feb 2013 17:37:37 +0000http://boingboing.net/?p=210986Surgeon Simulator 2013" in a weekend. It's somewhere between Operation, advanced medical training simulations, and splatterpunk films.]]>

Bossa Studios created the surgery game "Surgeon Simulator 2013" in a weekend. It's somewhere between Operation, advanced medical training simulations, and splatterpunk films. From the description on Steam Greenlight:

You are Nigel Burke... an ordinary guy, with no outstanding skills.
Somehow forced to perform an array of vastly complicated procedures,
using any tools available. Your goal will be to complete every
operation in the quickest time possible, with minimal blood loss!

One of the focal points of the storm emergency in New York City last night was New York University's Langone Medical Center: the hospital's main and backup power generators all failed, and hospital staff had to evacuate patients as power resources faded.

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Image: CBS News

One of the focal points of the storm emergency in New York City last night was New York University's Langone Medical Center: the hospital's main and backup power generators all failed, and hospital staff had to evacuate patients as power resources faded. All but 50 patients have been evacuated, and the remaining 50 are due to be transferred this morning. Those patients included 20 prematurely-born newborn babies who were in intensive care. This morning, CBS News has a first-person account from Dr. Jonathan LaPook, a CBS News medical correspondent (also a board-certified physician in internal medicine and gastroenterology).

Many patients were too sick to walk down the narrow staircase to the lobby. They were painstakingly carried on plastic sleds - one by one - by teams of four to five people from as high up as the 17th floor. I went to several of the floors with Dr. Mark Pochapin, the director of the Division of Gastroenterology at NYU. He was one of a team of people making sure that communication flowed and that everybody was accounted for. The intensive care unit was already evacuated when I arrived. Lit only by my flashlight, filled with crumpled blankets and other evidence of a hasty retreat, it appeared eerie to me - like a scene in a movie where a cup of still-warm-coffee tells the detective that somebody had been a room only minutes before. But this was undeniably real life and the clock was ticking as the team of workers raced to evacuate the patients.

[Video Link] "On July 5th, 2012, my 11-month-old son, Noah, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor," writes Mike Masse in the introduction to this YouTube video, a beautiful performance of the Beatles' "Let it Be."

[Video Link] "On July 5th, 2012, my 11-month-old son, Noah, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor," writes Mike Masse in the introduction to this YouTube video, a beautiful performance of the Beatles' "Let it Be."

No parent should have to bare their grief to the world, no matter how beautifully, to beg for money to cover the life-saving medical treatment their baby needs. As you see the beauty, be mindful of the injustice in our health care system this represents.

Cancer is one tragedy. The way our country treats people with cancer, even when they're little babies, is another.

Using the narrative of a police force hunting down pain, users are inducted as a rookie officer working on the case. Patients fill out a daily survey – which asks questions relating to whether they felt pain that day, how intense it was and its location – and can progress through the ranks of the force when they keep their records updated. The concept was created by Toronto-based media agency Cundari, who got stars from Rookie Blue and Flashpoint – two primetime cop shows in Canada – to appear in videos that are unlocked when patients do well and progress the narrative. By gamifying the process, the app gives patients an incentive to keep a daily journal of their pain. The app is still in the testing phase but SickKids hopes to release it later this year.

When I was in the hospital for breast cancer surgery, nurses popped in constantly to ask how my pain levels were; when they knew I was sufficiently doped up but saw me cry, they figured I was going through emotional pain.

But my relatively brief hospital stay is nothing compared to the longer-term in-patient stays many cancer patients must endure. And with many forms of cancer, monitoring pain levels over time is critical because that information can reveal the progression or retreat of disease.

I can see how a handheld app might encourage better data gathering, and more accurate tracking, especially in younger people with cancer who have different levels of comfort in communicating their condition with (older, adult) hospital staff. I haven't played with the app, and the proof is in how the young people with cancer feel about it—but it sounds like a great idea.

The excerpt tells the story of 53-year-old Edna Riggs, of Atlanta, Georgia. Fear of cancer, medical debt, and losing her job caused her to not seek treatment for her breast cancer until it reached a very advanced state.

And then there were books which claimed to be made from the human flesh but were, in fact, not. One example comes from the Wellcome Collection in London [left]. It is a curious little notebook which professes to be ‘made of Tanned skin of the Negro whose Execution caused the War of Independence’. Presumably, this refers to Crispus Attucks, a dockworker of Wampanoag who was the first person killed by the British during the Boston Massacre. Immediately following his death, Attucks was held up as an American martyr. As a consequence of its alleged origins, this notebook has become a symbol of the American Revolution.

Via my friend and fellow cancer-warrior Francesco Fondi of Wired (Italy), news that Fujifilm in Japan is launching what it calls "Real 3D Mammography," a medical imaging system that enables technicians to view mammographic images in a kind of 3D.

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Via my friend and fellow cancer-warrior Francesco Fondi of Wired (Italy), news that Fujifilm in Japan is launching what it calls "Real 3D Mammography," a medical imaging system that enables technicians to view mammographic images in a kind of 3D. The idea is to see and interpret the detail of internal anatomical breast structures more clearly than is currently possible with a 2D image.

The new system costs about $181K, and is designed to work with "Amulet f," Fujifilm's digital X-ray equipment for breast cancer screening (sold separately). I hereby volunteer to be a test hamster for this thing some day, even though I realize the radiation payload is a little higher with this than with current mammography. But wow, I'd love to see this level of detail about what is going on inside my body right now, as I go through chemotherapy.

Because the three-dimensional structures of breast tissues can be checked all at the same time, it is possible to determine if a tumor mass is in contact with a mammary gland as well as to measure the depth of microcalcification, Fujifilm said.

When a picture of a breast is taken with the Amulet f, it takes two images from different angles. Then, by displaying the two images on a special LCD monitor and using polarized glasses, it becomes possible to see a 3D image.

The special monitor is manufactured by combining two LCD monitors and a part called "half mirror." (...)When the Amulet f is used to take pictures, a patient is exposed to X-ray radiation twice. But, with Fujifilm's own methods of taking and processing images, the total amount of X-ray increases by only 30-50%, compared with a normal mammography, the company said.

"Videos must show how you will use information technology to achieve your resolution and how you plan to maintain it," according to the contest website. The sort of topics one might address (one per video) include obtaining your health records from your doctors and learning how to read and understand their contents, finding online support communities for a specific illness, or direct health improvement actions like using an electronic pedometer to track physical activity, or an iPhone app to count calories or monitor sleep cycles.